Monsignor Robert Weiss talks with students at Immaculate High School, from left, Ricky Kerins, 17, Nick Gerbo, 18, and Hank Brubaker, 18. Weiss was at the school to celebrate Mass and have lunch with students who formerly attended St. Rose of Lima, Weiss's church, Wednesday, May 8, 2013. less

Monsignor Robert Weiss talks with students at Immaculate High School, from left, Ricky Kerins, 17, Nick Gerbo, 18, and Hank Brubaker, 18. Weiss was at the school to celebrate Mass and have lunch with students ... more

He was preparing to celebrate Mass for students who had graduated from the elementary school at St. Rose of Lima in Newtown, where Weiss presides. He had confirmed them all, given them all their First Communions.

It's the 40th anniversary of Weiss' ordination this year. His annual Mass at the high school should have been celebratory. But when he spoke to the students, his concern, his sorrow -- for them, for St. Rose, for his community -- was manifest. Five months after the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School, Weiss is striving to mend a world he acknowledges may be fraying.

And so he urged the students, with rising force, to be as full of spirit as the church's early apostles going out into a hard world. Their town needs them, Weiss said.

"We're watching our community pulling apart at the seams," Weiss told the students. Trying to ignore the tragedy, he said, goes against the way of Jesus Christ.

"It's difficult to hear the story over and over," he said. "But we cannot forget it."

A day before the Mass at Immaculate, Weiss acknowledged the toll the Sandy Hook shootings have taken on him. Nine of the 26 victims -- eight children, one adult -- were his parishioners. In the days after the shooting, with Christmas looming, he had to preside at funeral after funeral.

Now, he acknowledges suffering from depression, to near-sleepless nights when restlessness keeps him awake for long hours.

His German heritage, he said, laughing, normally compels him to finish his work and have his desk clean before he left work. After Dec. 14, no more.

"There are papers all over my desk, all over the table," he said.

Weiss is a squarely built man with a lined, brown face and a straightforward, unpretentious demeanor. But when he talks about Newtown, there's an air of unalloyed sadness to him.

He said he is seeing the strain of the Sandy Hook shootings taking hold in his church and in his community as a whole. Despite the enormous care people have shown toward each other, Weiss said, he worries about the problems of people living under the strain of Dec. 14 -- about increases in alcoholism, spousal abuse and divorce he fears are coming.

"Every morning I think, `How do these families walk past that empty bedroom?' " Weiss said. And, he said, it's not always easy to serve as priest when your parish is still suffering so much.

"You always have to be thinking, `Is this is the right thing to say, the right thing to do?' " Weiss said. "There's no playbook for this.

"I haven't lost my faith," he said. "I've been blessed with strong faith. Without the Lord, I couldn't do this. But I admit, my faith in humanity has been challenged."

Those who have watched Weiss in his 14 years as leader of St. Rose of Lima, and in the past five months since the shooting, said their admiration for him is unending.

"He's been such an inspiration to me, to the students," said Kathleen Casey, president of Immaculate High School.

"He showed us what it means to be a priest," said Maren Brady, 15, and one of the St. Rose of Lima students at Immaculate. "Not just in good times, but in tragedy."

A Parish Priest

Weiss, 67, was brought up by faithful Roman Catholic parents in Florida. At the age of 17, while walking to school, he said he heard the voice of God in his ear telling him, `be a priest.' Since that moment of revelation, Weiss said, he has never wanted to be anything else.

He studied at St. John Fisher Seminary in Stamford, then at St. Bernard's Seminary in Rochester, N.Y. He graduated from St. Bernard's in 1972 and was ordained at St. Christopher Church in North Chili, N.Y., in 1973.

He has spent his 40 years of service in Fairfield County -- in Bridgeport, Stamford, Monroe and Shelton, where he was pastor of St. Joseph's Church for 10 years. In 1999, he was named pastor of St. Rose of Lima; in 2008, he was elevated to the position of monsignor.

Students at Immaculate, who know Weiss as the pastor of St. Rose of Lima, also spoke of his ability to bring them into the life of the church.

"I've known him all my life, and I've looked to him for direction," said Alex Gerbo, 15. "He's helped me become the person that I am."

Gerbo said that because of Weiss' strong sermons and homilies, church-going was not a duty.

"I wanted to go to Mass," he said.

`He was a rock'

After the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School, the nearby volunteer firehouse became the central meeting point. Parents hurried there, milling about, frantically using their cellphones to learn what was happening then sharing what little news there was to tell. Teachers walked the surviving students to the firehouse, and parents and children -- often sobbing -- got matched up.

Weiss heard about the killings at St. Rose of Lima. After being reassured the students at his school were safe, he went to the firehouse and spent the day there.

U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal was at the Sandy Hook Firehouse, too. He remembers it as a scene of enormous emotional turmoil.

"Things just rose and fell," Blumenthal said as some parents were reunited with their children while others gathered in worried anticipation until Gov. Dannel P. Malloy announced there were no more survivors.

Weiss stood in the center of all of this, Blumenthal said.

"He was a rock," the senator said.

`More blessings'

Waterbury said that in the weeks that followed Dec. 14, St. Rose of Lima parishioners saw sides of Weiss that he hasn't revealed in the past.

"With things so tragic, he's had to show his emotions," Waterbury said. "I think it's a good thing."

But he also sees signs of hope around him in Newtown. After a long, snowy winter, the Palm Sunday service seemed to be a harbinger of spring, Weiss said. After the service, people stood outside the church talking, gathering together.

"That day, the congregation was back to the way we used to be," he said.

And, as Weiss told the students at Immaculate High School, his 40 years as priest have been "a beautiful gift from God."

"No matter how tough it's been, there have always been more blessings," he said.